Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to episode eleven. I've been there,
Speaker 1: Dean that, we've been there. We dean that, we dean
Speaker 1: it and we bean it.
Speaker 2: We've been it and yep.
Speaker 1: We've deaned it. We've seen it when we dene it,
Speaker 1: and we've bean it all. We still have so much
Speaker 1: to see and so much to do, so much to bean,
Speaker 1: so many beans. But today's episode, we're just gonna go
Speaker 1: back and dean what we've already seen. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: do a quick recap of our trip to Italy.
Speaker 2: It was glorious.
Speaker 1: We just got back last week. But we have also
Speaker 1: been to Italy several times before this, and so I
Speaker 1: just figured we would include all of our Italy destinations
Speaker 1: in one episode, just the Italy episode.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be honest, our previous trip was a lot
Speaker 2: better than this trip. Not that this trip was bad,
Speaker 2: but that trip was amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's kind of all. I decided to just do
Speaker 1: this with all of our our trips because we've been
Speaker 1: three times. Do you know that.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we went to Venice and Dolomites.
Speaker 1: That's right. So back when Caylen and I first started dating,
Speaker 1: or in the early days.
Speaker 2: In like week two maybe.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I remember after I asked her to be my
Speaker 1: girlfriend on Bachelor in Paradise, I was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: actually want to Spain in Italy for two weeks, like tomorrow,
Speaker 1: and we were still in Mexico and one of the
Speaker 1: producers was like, okay, obviously like you can't do that,
Speaker 1: and I was like, well, no, I'm meeting friends out there.
Speaker 1: I have been planning this for months. I have to go.
Speaker 1: And he's like, okay, well, then just don't be an
Speaker 1: idiot by kaylen and plane ticket to come join you.
Speaker 2: Would you have not thought of that if the producer
Speaker 2: didn't tell you, I.
Speaker 1: Probably wouldn't have. I probably would have just gone and
Speaker 1: been like I'll see you when I get back. Don't
Speaker 1: don't do anything stupid.
Speaker 2: Shout out to Bill.
Speaker 1: No, it was Todd, I believe.
Speaker 2: Wow. Shocking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So Todd. Todd was like, don't be an idiot.
Speaker 1: Just take her to Europe with you. And I was like, oh, fine,
Speaker 1: I guess that's probably the best.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I was a guys trip, and
Speaker 1: not that it was not that. I just didn't think
Speaker 1: of it. And so I was like, like, you know,
Speaker 1: in the mindset in mode for a trip with my guys.
Speaker 1: We did a couple of things in Spain.
Speaker 2: It's not a guys trip because he brought his girlfriend Jason.
Speaker 1: Yeah, remember, but he was that car ride. I do
Speaker 1: remember that car r but he wasn't like that. I
Speaker 1: wasn't going with him. He just happened to be there
Speaker 1: at the same time, and so we met up with him.
Speaker 1: I was going with like Justice and all his friends.
Speaker 1: Remember all those guys from him. Yeah, and then I
Speaker 1: was meeting up a chat and Italy later on.
Speaker 2: Anyways.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so thank you Todd for convincing me to buy
Speaker 1: Kilen a plane ticket. It's crazy to buy a girlfriend
Speaker 1: you've been dating for two days a nine hundred dollars
Speaker 1: plane ticket to Europe. Worth it for you?
Speaker 2: You?
Speaker 1: For you obviously. So what did we do? We flew
Speaker 1: into Venice and we what did you think of Venice?
Speaker 1: Let's start there. How did you like Venice? Italy?
Speaker 2: I we I haven't traveled as much as Jean, but
Speaker 2: the more I traveled, the more I realize, like the
Speaker 2: places that are super hyped up, places like Venice and
Speaker 2: Paris are never the ones that I'm like, I end
Speaker 2: up being the most excited.
Speaker 1: About you love Paris though I do not like.
Speaker 2: Paris, but like Venice was cool. It's just it's hard
Speaker 2: going to a place that is so torsty because it's
Speaker 2: exactly that. It is so touristy. You're not getting like
Speaker 2: super authentic food. You know, its price overpriced. It's catered
Speaker 2: to Americans or tourists in general. So Venice is fine,
Speaker 2: it's beautiful, but it's not my favorite city in Italy.
Speaker 1: And at the time, though you were in love with
Speaker 1: it was I Yeah, you're like wide eyed little girl,
Speaker 1: first time overseas.
Speaker 2: That was not my first side.
Speaker 1: You have this great new boyfriend that's willing to show
Speaker 1: you the world. I can show you the world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you took my hand and jumped on my magic
Speaker 1: carpet aka my mustache.
Speaker 2: M hm, it's gone then.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, the.
Speaker 2: Rest is history.
Speaker 1: So what did you think of Nis though, let's fill it.
Speaker 1: Let's go through Venice real quick. What was your highlight
Speaker 1: of Venis highlight?
Speaker 2: It's gorgeous, I think getting to see it and you're
Speaker 2: just kind of on the water. It's a little stinky,
Speaker 2: but it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: It's a little stinky. That water gets a little gross.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's really cool and I don't know if
Speaker 2: that will ever go back. But there are places that
Speaker 2: we miss, like really cool restaurants that are just overlooking
Speaker 2: the water. Like there's one that's a little key hole
Speaker 2: or archway and it's just you and that person like
Speaker 2: sitting there on the water. It looks very intimate.
Speaker 1: And cue I showed it to you recently, but we
Speaker 1: didn't do that.
Speaker 2: We didn't, so there's like little parts that maybe we missed.
Speaker 2: But also that little boat ride we took into that
Speaker 2: other town, I really liked that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I actually was just looking up on all the
Speaker 1: places we visited in Italy and I totally forgot about that.
Speaker 1: S right. Anyways, Yeah, we took a ferry over to
Speaker 1: a small island. I highly recommend. That was a good
Speaker 1: day because you get to get out and see. I
Speaker 1: believe the island is called Morano. If I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: I found it. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that's
Speaker 1: what the island is called through my diligent research. But yeah,
Speaker 1: all in all, Venice was It's cool to see and
Speaker 1: go and say that you've gone. But I don't know
Speaker 1: if I would necessarily go back to it.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing. We have been so spoiled going north
Speaker 2: to south and hitting like the major spots that that
Speaker 2: was my first time in Italy and I had a
Speaker 2: great time. But then going to other spots, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: there are like so many cooler cities. But when you
Speaker 2: think of Italy, I think the most popular destinations are Venice, Rome, Sicily.
Speaker 2: Maybe sure, I don't know, but I love other cities
Speaker 2: that will get to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's just move on from Venice. If you
Speaker 1: have the chances to see Venice, go and spend maybe
Speaker 1: two or three days. I would say three days tops.
Speaker 1: Two days is probably a good amount of time. Just
Speaker 1: walk around and do a gondola ride.
Speaker 2: Eat some food, or do a gondola ride.
Speaker 1: I don't think that we did.
Speaker 2: We did one in Vegas that was nice.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like we were in Italy in Venice.
Speaker 1: But yeah, two days, three days tops. It's a cool city.
Speaker 1: We're not like big museum goers. I think maybe if
Speaker 1: we were more museuming we would probably like it a
Speaker 1: little bit more. Who knows. But fast forward a couple
Speaker 1: of years, maybe two or three years, we then wanted
Speaker 1: to do a trip out there for some reason you
Speaker 1: got to deal with the Hotel Oriental mand An Oriental
Speaker 1: in Lake Como.
Speaker 2: I think I was just reaching out to hotels and
Speaker 2: they said yes, and so I was like, I've always
Speaker 2: wanted to go to like Como. So that's why we
Speaker 2: went out there, I think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't remember exactly why. I think maybe our
Speaker 1: friend invited us, or we just happened to be out
Speaker 1: there at the same time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were just out there and we didn't buy
Speaker 2: return flights and so we were just out there and
Speaker 2: we didn't have a plan. So we flew into La Como.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we flew into Milan Milan, and then we
Speaker 1: rented a car and drove up to Lake Como. In
Speaker 1: Lake Como is maybe one of the coolest towns I've
Speaker 1: been to in a long time in my entire life.
Speaker 2: I do wish we spent more time there because there's
Speaker 2: so many, so many spots to see. There was like
Speaker 2: one little like beautiful hotel that everyone goes to, and
Speaker 2: also they shot Star Wars there, like a bunch of
Speaker 2: spots that we didn't get to go to, So I'd
Speaker 2: love to go back.
Speaker 1: I still feel like we saw lot, like we got
Speaker 1: that classic Alpha Romeo car and got to drive that
Speaker 1: around ran out of gas. Do you remember that?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a fun little car. It was like
Speaker 1: a nineteen sixties Coop convertible that was just like fun
Speaker 1: to bounce around on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was really cool. If you have the chance
Speaker 2: to rent a classic car, it was. It just felt
Speaker 2: like we were in the fifties. Yeah, and Maylen Monroe
Speaker 2: and James.
Speaker 1: Dean, I don't know, you're asking the wrong guy. What
Speaker 1: else did we do? And then we went We took
Speaker 1: a speedboat out for like four hours. That was fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was really fun because they didn't
Speaker 2: have a driver, and they were like, you've driven a
Speaker 2: boat before, Dean, right, And Deane's like, yeah, Dean had
Speaker 2: never driven a boat before.
Speaker 1: I had. I had like taken over the reins from
Speaker 1: the driver of a boat, like while we're already out
Speaker 1: in the middle.
Speaker 2: I never like docked or done you know, all those things.
Speaker 2: So it was cool to like a full private experience.
Speaker 2: And normally private boat experiences include a driver a boat driver,
Speaker 2: but it was fully private.
Speaker 1: I'll take free range any day of the week if
Speaker 1: you give me the option of doing it myself or
Speaker 1: having someone else do it for I'll do it myself
Speaker 1: every single time. Even if I don't know how I
Speaker 1: know how to drive a boat in theory, I guess
Speaker 1: I've never actually like practiced, so that's why I was
Speaker 1: kind of like, yeah, I can totally drive this boat.
Speaker 1: But then they're like, okay, cool, here are the keys,
Speaker 1: bring it back before five. I was like, oh really, okay, great,
Speaker 1: see you. And there weren't really any incidents, thankfully.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's more so just understanding other boats, I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is what I was telling you the whole time.
Speaker 2: You're like, so what I learned from you?
Speaker 1: You were all so who knows it if it's actually
Speaker 1: real or not. You were like freaking out the whole time,
Speaker 1: and I was like, just just relaxed.
Speaker 2: Sorry, what me?
Speaker 1: Just how was I freaking Let me have my moment?
Speaker 2: Are you serious?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: How was I freaking out?
Speaker 1: You're a little scared girl. No, you're going too fast.
Speaker 1: You're getting too close to boats, which I wasn't but no, okay,
Speaker 1: maybe that's not true. But anyways, it was fun. We
Speaker 1: rode the boat over to remember that like little bridge
Speaker 1: with the waterfall in the back. Oh yeah, that was gorgeous,
Speaker 1: so beautiful.
Speaker 2: That's the only time I freaked out was because you
Speaker 2: told me to drive the boat and I didn't know
Speaker 2: how to drive a boat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted to do a dive off the boat
Speaker 1: in front of the waterfall while Kaitlyn took a picture.
Speaker 1: But there's only two of us on the boat, so
Speaker 1: I had to jump off the boat, make sure that
Speaker 1: she knew enough about the boat to not let it
Speaker 1: like get away too far right, and then also like
Speaker 1: take the picture and run back into the seat. So
Speaker 1: it was a lot of work, a lot of coordination involved,
Speaker 1: but we got it done. We did it. So we
Speaker 1: were gonna look in Lake Como in September twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one and the weather I remember the weather being basically perfect.
Speaker 2: Yeah it was. It was pretty warm, and it was
Speaker 2: shoulder season, which I loved. So that's what I don't like.
Speaker 2: I don't like big crowds. I don't like a ton
Speaker 2: of tourists around, and shoulder season was great because it
Speaker 2: felt pretty empty.
Speaker 1: And I do want to mention real quick. We flew
Speaker 1: into Milan. I know I already mentioned that, but we
Speaker 1: were driving up as like a late flight. We landed
Speaker 1: at and then we had like a three hour drive
Speaker 1: or something like that.
Speaker 2: We're so hungry.
Speaker 1: You knew it wasn't gonna talk about. We stopped at
Speaker 1: this like truck or stop, and we, you know, our
Speaker 1: first time in Italy since the last time we're there,
Speaker 1: which is like two or three years before that, and
Speaker 1: we just stopped at this trucker stopped just hoping to
Speaker 1: get like some chips or something. But they were serving
Speaker 1: like food, like real food, like pizza and pasta and stuff.
Speaker 1: And we got pizza and pasta and it was some
Speaker 1: of the best to this day, some of the best
Speaker 1: pizza and pasasta.
Speaker 2: Wine, best pizza. It was so good and I was like, wow,
Speaker 2: starting off on a high.
Speaker 1: Yeah, some random truck stop. We spent couldn't have spent
Speaker 1: more than like twelve bucks total for yeah, a couple couple,
Speaker 1: couple plates of food.
Speaker 2: It was awesome.
Speaker 1: And you had some wine. I didn't because I was
Speaker 1: driving right right. Yeah, but yeah, Lake Como was awesome.
Speaker 1: I definitely highly recommend it if you're thinking about it.
Speaker 1: It exceeded expectations. I believe you after going there, you
Speaker 1: said you wanted to get married there, and.
Speaker 2: I feel like we were really considering it, but then
Speaker 2: we had to take into consideration our families and how
Speaker 2: expensive it would be to have them out there, like
Speaker 2: where they would stay, it's very pricey. I'm happy obviously
Speaker 2: with where we ended up, but yeah, I was just
Speaker 2: so in love with it. And I was talking to
Speaker 2: the Mandarin Oriental and we still at this little like
Speaker 2: side house, and they were like, this is usually where
Speaker 2: the bride gets ready. You can highly have your whole
Speaker 2: family stay here, And I'm like, yeah, if it's free,
Speaker 2: but otherwise there's no way we can afford this. It was,
Speaker 2: but it was so gorgeous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like, not only is it expensive there, but
Speaker 1: just getting there is expensive. Yeah, So it was probably
Speaker 1: for the best that we didn't get married there, although
Speaker 1: it would have been amazing and if you have the chance
Speaker 1: to check it out. So then from Lake Como we
Speaker 1: drove to the Dolomites, which is some of the craziest
Speaker 1: mountains I've personally ever seen. It's kind of reminiscent to
Speaker 1: me of like the Tetons of Europe. What do you
Speaker 1: think about that?
Speaker 2: I guess, So are the tea Tons that crazy?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you've seen the Titons, Yeah, but are They
Speaker 1: that crazy. The Tee Tons are very crazy, the most,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, the most scenic mountain range I've ever
Speaker 1: seen in my entire life. The Dolomites are just maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit bigger than the Tetons.
Speaker 2: They're so big because it's it's Italy, France and Switzerland.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, my geography is correct. Yeah, it's close enough.
Speaker 1: If it's wrong, I would agree with that.
Speaker 2: But it's like it's so big. You've got the Swiss Alps,
Speaker 2: You've got the Dolomites. Yeah, the Italian Alps. Why don't
Speaker 2: people say the Italian Alps.
Speaker 1: They do well? I think helps people are just more
Speaker 1: used to hearing the Swiss Alps, and.
Speaker 2: It's just it's vast, it's so I I just think
Speaker 2: it's so much grander than the Tee towns. I think
Speaker 2: the Tee Towns are gorgeous and amazing, but it's hard
Speaker 2: to compare because it's so big.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, let's say this. Then it's like the Tetons.
Speaker 1: If the Titans and the Rocky Mountains had a baby,
Speaker 1: it would be the Dolomites. Yeah. Do you know what
Speaker 1: the Rocky Mountains are in it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, But like so two small parents make a big parent.
Speaker 1: No, the Rockies are bigger than the Dolomites, guaranteed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the Dolomites. We stayed at Hotel Hubris. Do you
Speaker 1: remember that hotel? Very cool? Hotel, very cool, and.
Speaker 2: They're always we talked to I think it was the
Speaker 2: owner of the hotel and he's like, we're always trying
Speaker 2: to create something new, do something new, because they have
Speaker 2: this huge, huge, long pool overlooking the Dolomites and it's
Speaker 2: absolute gorgeous, like.
Speaker 1: Jets out so there's like nothing above it, nothing below it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can see the bottom. It's beautiful. And
Speaker 2: so then he's like, we're working on a dual sauna
Speaker 2: and so it's called like Heaven and Hell. So they
Speaker 2: have that. Now I'm excited to see what they do
Speaker 2: next because it's a super cool hotel. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 2: very uh Swiss and German inspired.
Speaker 1: I feel like probably well the food, yeah. I just
Speaker 1: remember going to like the because it was fall, early fall,
Speaker 1: I guess or late summer. I'm not really sure what
Speaker 1: the seasons are there or not there, but just in general,
Speaker 1: like one one ends. And so we went up onto
Speaker 1: the ski resort and some of those like the the
Speaker 1: chalets were open and so we got I remember just
Speaker 1: seating there, but yeah, and that was good. I really
Speaker 1: liked that place a lot. He was just great. I've
Speaker 1: always since going there in September, I've wanted to return
Speaker 1: in the winter and get a ski out there, but
Speaker 1: I haven't had a chance to yet. So hopefully one
Speaker 1: day I'll have the ability to do that.
Speaker 2: That we went to another hotel after In this hotel,
Speaker 2: if you ever want to experience what it's like to
Speaker 2: be an influencer, check this hotel out.
Speaker 1: Wow, why don't you get ahead yourself a little bit more?
Speaker 2: Well, this was our next stop at the Dolomites.
Speaker 1: I know, but we haven't finished talked about Hotel Hubris.
Speaker 2: I thought we did.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're done. Now let's move on to the next one.
Speaker 2: What's that one called?
Speaker 1: Do you remember the name chale l foss Yep. So
Speaker 1: we drove from the Dolomites where Hotel Hubris was, to
Speaker 1: another place in the Dolomites. I think the town is Vermiglio,
Speaker 1: Vermilio something like that, and it's a little closer to
Speaker 1: the border. Chale al Fos. Yes, it is influencer Heaven
Speaker 1: they set out like these insane like placements of like
Speaker 1: the food, and they have every little nook and cranny
Speaker 1: is kind of devoted to like getting cool pictures or
Speaker 1: like spoiling your partner.
Speaker 2: Very very romantic and you don't have to be an
Speaker 2: influencer to go obviously. You can set up these little
Speaker 2: fun excursions. You can eat breakfast without pacas, and the
Speaker 2: outpack has love flower pedals, so they'll just kind of
Speaker 2: eat the flower petals off your table. Like you can
Speaker 2: do a hot tub at night with a little cute
Speaker 2: Chalet cheeseboard, floating Chalet cheeseboard, what else. Like they've got
Speaker 2: different cabins and same with them. They're always trying to
Speaker 2: do more and as much as they can.
Speaker 1: Yeah, our friends just went and did a lot of
Speaker 1: the same stuff we did, but also the new stuff
Speaker 1: that they've had. Oh yeah, the only gripe I have
Speaker 1: with chalet al foss is. It just felt really gluttonous
Speaker 1: to me, Like it felt like they like I hate
Speaker 1: posting stuff like that because it just kind of makes
Speaker 1: me feel like I'm showing off in a way, and
Speaker 1: it is very like showy offie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's hard because a lot of influencers
Speaker 2: go so they do every single thing that they have
Speaker 2: to offer, Versus I think if someone who's who's not
Speaker 2: an influencer goes and they're just doing romantic things for
Speaker 2: their partner would be different.
Speaker 1: True. And then one day I just want to mention
Speaker 1: this real quick. I did a via ferada over there
Speaker 1: at Ponte di Legno Deleno. I just am so bad
Speaker 1: at pronouncing these I did a China episode last week.
Speaker 1: You know, I was trying to pronounce a lot of
Speaker 1: the Chinese names, and I got a couple dms of
Speaker 1: like people being like, you are going to confuse so
Speaker 1: many people because you're saying the word and it doesn't
Speaker 1: sound anything like it's supposed to sound, and so I
Speaker 1: feel really bad about that. But Italian is kind of
Speaker 1: the same, like Vermiglio, Is it Vermilio Vermiglio? I feel
Speaker 1: like it's Vermilio, but it looks like Vermiglio. It's not
Speaker 1: phonetic probably, But anyways, Ponte di Legno, pont de Leno,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, is this cool via ferrata Kaylin stayed back.
Speaker 1: I did a YouTube documentary style version of it. I
Speaker 1: was wearing my TI bus and I showed up to
Speaker 1: the ticket office because you take like a gondola to
Speaker 1: the top or as far up the mountain as you
Speaker 1: can and then you start hiking from there. And I
Speaker 1: was like, hey, I like one ticket for the gondola.
Speaker 1: I want to do the Via Ferrata please, And she
Speaker 1: was like, oh, yeah, where's your guide or where's your partner.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I'm just doing it myself. And
Speaker 1: she was like, looked me up and down, saw my
Speaker 1: flip flops. She's like, you're doing it in sandals and
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, didn't look too hard from when
Speaker 1: I saw online. And she goes, that's the dumbest thing
Speaker 1: I've ever seen in my entire life. You're doing it
Speaker 1: in sandals. And I was like, just give me the ticket.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be fine. Just give me the ticket. If
Speaker 1: something happens, I'm sorry, but I don't think that's anything
Speaker 1: Bad's gonna happen. And it was a fun experience. I
Speaker 1: will say it was like, probably not for the faint
Speaker 1: of heart, Caitlin would have been able to do it,
Speaker 1: but she would have definitely been scared. I saw a
Speaker 1: lot of other people with like ropes and harnesses and
Speaker 1: helmets and climbing gear. And I passed every single one
Speaker 1: of them in my sandals. And there's no more satisfying
Speaker 1: feeling in the world than passing a group that's like
Speaker 1: totally decked out and like safety equipment and you're just
Speaker 1: wearing sandals, not really giving a crap about anything. I
Speaker 1: know that sounds so foolish and it's like, probably so
Speaker 1: childish for me to say, but it is a cool feeling,
Speaker 1: I think. And they're like, whoa, what is this guy doing?
Speaker 2: And you're like, yeah, you know, I mean, I don't
Speaker 2: know from experience. No, I'm a safety girl.
Speaker 1: It's so silly, it's such an egotistical thing to say,
Speaker 1: but it's so true. It's just I don't even know
Speaker 1: how to explain it properly. But when people like look
Speaker 1: at you and the like this guy's either an idiot
Speaker 1: or a badass, that's exactly how I want everyone to
Speaker 1: look at me, either stupid or bad ass. I'll I'll
Speaker 1: take that. And that took a couple hours. I can't
Speaker 1: remember how many miles it was, but I would say
Speaker 1: probably like eight or nine hours start to finish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were gone all.
Speaker 1: Day and then Charlie ol Fass. We left there, we
Speaker 1: went to Tuscany to meet up with Chad and some
Speaker 1: other friends. You loved Tuscany.
Speaker 2: I love Tuscany. It's my favorite place. I love. Like Como,
Speaker 2: Tuscany is number one for me and like Como's number two. Uh.
Speaker 2: I just it's so beautiful, and I think for me
Speaker 2: it's crowds and just feeling like there's a lot of
Speaker 2: space around you. There's so much space. Again, it was
Speaker 2: shoulder season, but very few people. I just don't like
Speaker 2: being surrounded like a sardine around people, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, so you're preaching on the choir here. I
Speaker 1: hate that as well. We met up with them the
Speaker 1: first or second night. They were already there and they
Speaker 1: had an airbnb at like this old castle kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Really creepy, really creepy. The electricity like barely were but really, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the shower didn't work. There was only like one light
Speaker 1: in every big room, and so like it didn't really
Speaker 1: cast enough light to really light up the space. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and yeah, you had to like go through a bunch
Speaker 1: of like long halways to get to your room. It
Speaker 1: was cool, but it was it was a unique experience.
Speaker 1: For sure. It was cool.
Speaker 2: We played Uno until three am. Loser had to jump
Speaker 2: in the freezing.
Speaker 1: Pool and Kalin surprisingly lost and did it. Yep. I
Speaker 1: was shocked. I not in a million years would have
Speaker 1: thought you would have done that same.
Speaker 2: I still can't believe I did that.
Speaker 1: Did you do it again?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Nice, good for you. That's awesome. Even going into town,
Speaker 1: I remember their crowds weren't that big.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we went to this really cool town center and
Speaker 2: I just I think that's my biggest thing, maybe since COVID.
Speaker 2: I just need space. Yeah, I need my I need
Speaker 2: people not to be so close to me.
Speaker 1: Give yourself space and then give yourself the option to
Speaker 1: go into this city or if you want to and
Speaker 1: like get some people, get your time filled with that
Speaker 1: and then go back to your like on solitude.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're catching on. You're catching on to this whole
Speaker 1: traveling thing. I respect that. What else did we do
Speaker 1: while we were Tusky? I feel like we did.
Speaker 2: We went to the most beautiful hotel, that's.
Speaker 1: What it was. The hotel. Yeah. So it was our
Speaker 1: friend's mom's birthday, or it was Sophie's birthday. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: they all pitched in and got like this nice suite
Speaker 1: at the Belmond in Tuscany, and we like showed up
Speaker 1: without a reservation or anything, and we're like, yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: just get a room for the night. Had a big deal,
Speaker 1: and we go to like check in and we asked
Speaker 1: them if they have any availability and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we only have sweets available right now, and so we
Speaker 1: were like bungalow. We were like, crap, but that's what
Speaker 1: they that's what they got. But they were splitting out
Speaker 1: like four ways, and then so we didn't want to.
Speaker 2: Like, we've never spent so much money on a hotel.
Speaker 1: No, we've never had never will again. I never will
Speaker 1: again either. I think it was like two thousand dollars or.
Speaker 2: Something like that. It was, and it was nice but
Speaker 2: for one.
Speaker 1: Night though, and it was nice. I'm glad we did it,
Speaker 1: but I don't think I can't say I wouldn't do
Speaker 1: it again, because time and situation kind of really depends
Speaker 1: on that.
Speaker 2: But it was also like not that they were pressuring us,
Speaker 2: but like knowing your friends are behind you, they're staying
Speaker 2: there and they're just kind of watching you, and you're like, shoot,
Speaker 2: do I put my credit card down? Or do I say,
Speaker 2: we'll find something cheaper. Not that they would have judged us,
Speaker 2: but it was a little pressure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'm glad we succumb to the pressure because
Speaker 1: we had a great meal. We took a cooking class.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, one of the best meals ever. I
Speaker 2: don't eat red meat, but I had a little bit
Speaker 2: of the red meat that they cooked, and it was unbelievable.
Speaker 2: We made three different types of pasta, I think noki
Speaker 2: and two others.
Speaker 1: It was so good, so good. So if you have
Speaker 1: the chance to say at Belmont for whatever reason, just
Speaker 1: enjoy it, because I passed up. It was maybe the
Speaker 1: best hotel experience I've ever had, top top five at
Speaker 1: the very least. So from Tuscany, they went down to Sorrento,
Speaker 1: which is like a Malfie coast kind of, but we drove,
Speaker 1: they took the train, and so we stopped at Manchiano.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that the hot spring? Oh yeah, we
Speaker 1: I like saw some of one of my friends that
Speaker 1: was in Italy before go to this crazy looking hot
Speaker 1: spring in the middle of kind of nowhere Italy, like
Speaker 1: on the central western coast sort of. And since we
Speaker 1: were driving through, I figured we might as well, go anyways,
Speaker 1: just to check it out. It was a bit of
Speaker 1: a detour few hours, but I loved doing that. I
Speaker 1: loved like taking a couple hours to go off and
Speaker 1: see something that you wouldn't really have the chance to
Speaker 1: see otherwise. We got there at like five five thirty
Speaker 1: in the morning, right because the crowd. No, we got
Speaker 1: there the night before at like five pm, and the
Speaker 1: crowd was insane, so many people, and so I was like,
Speaker 1: screw this, We're just gonna get a hotel right nearby,
Speaker 1: and then we'll come back at five in the morning,
Speaker 1: like hopefully when it's empty and we can you know,
Speaker 1: fly the drone and take photos and everything. And we
Speaker 1: came back at five in the morning the next day
Speaker 1: and it was there was still like a couple dozen
Speaker 1: people around, like it was still more broader than it
Speaker 1: should have been for that time of day.
Speaker 2: I was surprised it really, And it fills up so fast.
Speaker 2: We got there for sunrise. We were there maybe twenty
Speaker 2: thirty minutes, and then it was full by the time
Speaker 2: we left.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you said, we don't like being around people,
Speaker 1: So we got out of there as soon as we could.
Speaker 2: When the people it's just so weird to be in
Speaker 2: a hot spring with a bunch of other strangers, is it?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't want to be swimming around
Speaker 2: with strangers.
Speaker 1: You've been to a pool or an ocean or a beach, Yeah.
Speaker 2: I see where you're coming from, but a small pool.
Speaker 1: I don't know. You're right, I'm right, but yeah, No,
Speaker 1: that was fun. It was a fun love with You tour.
Speaker 1: And then eventually we made it down to Sorrento. And
Speaker 1: so for those of you at home that are keeping track,
Speaker 1: we started in Lake Como and we ended in Sorrento.
Speaker 1: That's a total of nine hundred kilometers, which is roughly,
Speaker 1: I want to say, six hundred and six hundred miles,
Speaker 1: a little more than six hundred miles, which is pretty far,
Speaker 1: really far.
Speaker 2: Dan drove the whole time.
Speaker 1: I did, because it was a stick shift and you
Speaker 1: haven't learned how to drive one of those yet. I
Speaker 1: wonder what the American equivalent of six hundred miles is.
Speaker 1: It's probably like here to Vegas, Yeah, Denver to Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: Maybe let's check this real quick, because we in America.
Speaker 1: It leads a bigger country than you realize, especially north
Speaker 1: to south. With why is it's not the widest, but
Speaker 1: it's a long boot. No, don't worry about looking it's okay.
Speaker 1: But yeah, So we drove six hundred dish miles over
Speaker 1: the course of a week and a half or two weeks.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what it is. Yeah, it is basically
Speaker 1: from Denver to Vegas is a little bit longer by
Speaker 1: forty miles. So I'm so smart. You're so smart. So
Speaker 1: we got to Sorrento to meet our friends. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the hotel that we stayed at there Sorrento?
Speaker 2: Oh? No, but it was it was really cute.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really cute. It was called the Maya
Speaker 1: Beach Experience and it was nice. Our friend's friend did
Speaker 1: all of the linen for the hotel, so they got
Speaker 1: a deal. I don't remember if we did or not.
Speaker 1: I think we did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we did, we did.
Speaker 1: And it was nice. It was really nice, like a
Speaker 1: little cove that you kind of stay in. The thing
Speaker 1: I didn't like about my beach house was it's you
Speaker 1: can't get in and out of it easily.
Speaker 2: That sound only you said, my beach house. I thing
Speaker 2: I didn't like about my beach house my beach house. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I agree. Hotels like that are tough because you go
Speaker 2: down this really windy, windy road, very steep, very steep,
Speaker 2: and so you can't walk out of it. You have
Speaker 2: to drive, and it's not easy to get in and
Speaker 2: out of a town. I like being I like both.
Speaker 1: I like being, yeah, wildly being away from the town,
Speaker 1: but at least being able to access it easier, easier. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that one, like, there are so many tight curves you
Speaker 1: have to like if a car is coming down, then
Speaker 1: you have to get to the side or reverse downhill
Speaker 1: so they can get by you. Like, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of work to get up and out, you know, as
Speaker 1: opposed to just like driving up a hill regularly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we were there. We went to the town for
Speaker 1: dinner one night and ate on the water had this
Speaker 1: nice little seafood restaurant. You remember that it was like
Speaker 1: kind of on a boat, but not it wasn't a boat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I remember, And they the woman when we left,
Speaker 2: gave us all these like good luck charms, like Saint
Speaker 2: Charles or something chimes.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's right. And then yeah, I still don't even
Speaker 1: really know what you're talking about, to be honest, but
Speaker 1: I'm just going with it, and then I left for
Speaker 1: Alaska and you went to them to a Malfi, which
Speaker 1: is probably pretty fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Malfi is only like thirty minutes away, I believe.
Speaker 2: I think we just took a cab to a Malfi.
Speaker 2: And again, it was Sophie's birthday, so she rented this
Speaker 2: beautiful airbnb like right on the water, like on the hill,
Speaker 2: but still you could see the water from your room.
Speaker 2: Very beautiful. A Malfi was great, but it's it's the
Speaker 2: same thing I've been saying. It's very busy. Malfi is
Speaker 2: another one that people are obsessed with.
Speaker 1: But it's beautiful, right, so beautiful. I remember, so I
Speaker 1: remember driving into Sorrento because I didn't go to a Malfi,
Speaker 1: so I can't speak for that. But you like come in,
Speaker 1: especially from north to south, you come in around this
Speaker 1: bend and then like you're on like this huge cliff
Speaker 1: side that kind of like coves around, and then Sorrento's
Speaker 1: on the far side, so you're like looking over this
Speaker 1: coat or these cliffs at this city that's kind of
Speaker 1: like perched above the cliffs along the water. It is
Speaker 1: maybe one of the most picturesque, like little towns I've
Speaker 1: ever driven through or to in.
Speaker 2: My entire life, so gorgeous. There's a town neighboring it,
Speaker 2: a Malfi that I like a little bit more. I
Speaker 2: think I just like quaintness, you know. But it was
Speaker 2: still a Mafi was just so beautiful and so gorgeous.
Speaker 2: That one was for being shoulder season was still very busy.
Speaker 1: Mafi was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's also become one of those influencer centric places.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you guys go to Capri? You didn't you
Speaker 1: take a boat to an island or something.
Speaker 2: I left the day before they went to Capri, which
Speaker 2: is a bummers.
Speaker 1: And then let's fast forward out to this trip that
Speaker 1: we just got back from. So we flew into Rome.
Speaker 1: We were in Rome for a couple days and we
Speaker 1: stayed downtown at a hotel.
Speaker 2: Called Olmita thirty six.
Speaker 1: Ol Tima thirty six.
Speaker 2: Almita Oh Malita Omalita.
Speaker 1: Ol Tima No U l t I m A U
Speaker 1: m A l I t A. All right, you can
Speaker 1: put either of those in. I'm sure it'll pop up,
Speaker 1: a great little hotel, pretty well located. Rome is great
Speaker 1: because I typically loved the rent cars wherever we go.
Speaker 1: Rome is a place where it's nice to not have
Speaker 1: a car. So we took a taxi from the airport
Speaker 1: to the hotel and then we just kind of walked
Speaker 1: around from there wherever we wanted to go. And they
Speaker 1: have like a bunch of line and scooters and stuff
Speaker 1: that you can just hop on if you wanted to.
Speaker 1: Fore warning though, scooter fore warning, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: cobblestone roads and those scooters don't have very good suspension,
Speaker 1: so it's very bumpy.
Speaker 2: My brain was jiggled, yes.
Speaker 1: Kaylen Jogler brain and she's never been the same ever since.
Speaker 1: But at the hotel was great. We walked to the
Speaker 1: Trevy Fountain. We had our Lizzie McGuire dreams come true.
Speaker 1: We walked to the Colisseum. I had my Gladiator dreams
Speaker 1: come true. We walked to a couple other landmarks that
Speaker 1: are escaping my brain right now, and we just kind
Speaker 1: of stayed near our hotel, ate some good food, went
Speaker 1: antique shopping. I'm staring at one of my souvenirs right now.
Speaker 1: It's about a two foot tall dog holding a stopwatch.
Speaker 1: My favorite thing, one of my favorite things I've ever
Speaker 1: boughten overseas Kaitlyn almost didn't want me to get it. Almost.
Speaker 1: I said, She's like, what is what price does it
Speaker 1: have to be for you to get it? And I said,
Speaker 1: if it's over one hundred dollars, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: get it. And it was ninety five dollars, which is surprise.
Speaker 2: Okay. That's something about Italy. Their prices are so fair
Speaker 2: and it's so fun. It makes me frustrated about America.
Speaker 2: This antique shop we went to, all of the prices
Speaker 2: were so incredibly fair, and I feel like antique shops
Speaker 2: in America they just jack them up and call them
Speaker 2: vintage even if they're not vintage. But even in the airport,
Speaker 2: the prices were so cheap. I'm not over it.
Speaker 1: It's like two dollars for a soda, which is in
Speaker 1: America it's like five dollars for that same soda.
Speaker 2: Well, in an airport it's ten.
Speaker 1: You say that, but you're exact. I understand you're exaggerated
Speaker 1: to a pre your point, but you're going a little
Speaker 1: too far.
Speaker 2: Eight.
Speaker 1: You're escaping the realm of reality and going into this
Speaker 1: what five dollars?
Speaker 2: Uh huh. We were just at the airport. I had
Speaker 2: to buy an aluminum bottle of water eleven bucks.
Speaker 1: I guess if you're saying that you bought an eleven
Speaker 1: dollars bottle of wine air bottle of water, I can't
Speaker 1: argue that. But are you do you promise look me
Speaker 1: in the eyes? It was actually twelve shut was it?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 1: Do you promise?
Speaker 2: I promise at lax Yes.
Speaker 1: That's insane. It's getting out of hands. But you buy
Speaker 1: that same bottle of water one hundred feet before you
Speaker 1: pass through security and it's three dollars, you know, that's
Speaker 1: how they It's so frustrating. But yeah, fairly priced. I
Speaker 1: will say, even in the big cities, it's the pricing
Speaker 1: is fine. Every meal was still kind of expensive. But like,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, you get out of the cities and what
Speaker 1: was that recording? Yeah, okay, you get out of the
Speaker 1: cities and it gets way cheaper, which is nice in
Speaker 1: my opinion. So yeah, so Rome Hotel, ol Tima or Olmita,
Speaker 1: depending on who we're talking to, depending on who you're asking.
Speaker 1: Great place to stay. And then we went to the
Speaker 1: train station, hopped on a train, went to Florence. What
Speaker 1: do you think of Florence?
Speaker 2: First, the train station was great. They've got the train
Speaker 2: station in Rome has this little lounge, super nice, and
Speaker 2: they've got great guards that will help you and get
Speaker 2: your tickets.
Speaker 1: Great guards, great great.
Speaker 2: Guards, great great employees. But yeah, I loved the train station.
Speaker 2: It was so so easy and it was about a
Speaker 2: two hour and a half.
Speaker 1: Train ride one hour forty five.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's super easy. And then we get to Florence.
Speaker 2: We rented a car. Driving around the town of Florence
Speaker 2: was so chaotic. I was so stressed in the passenger seat.
Speaker 2: But then we went to our hotel, which was.
Speaker 1: I can't remember the name of it, but it was
Speaker 1: also similar to that hotel that we're talking about when
Speaker 1: we stayed in Tuscany. It was like an old castle,
Speaker 1: but it was like just a home for a family
Speaker 1: that then they donated to a school that then they
Speaker 1: turned into a hotel.
Speaker 2: Someone DMed me and said that her mom went to
Speaker 2: school there and then they went there for their honeymoon,
Speaker 2: which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. It was a beautiful setting up on a
Speaker 1: hill kind of overlooking the city, but it just was
Speaker 1: a little dated in terms of like comfortability standards. I
Speaker 1: guess like the heating wasn't really working as it was
Speaker 1: supposed to. The mosquitoes kept coming in the it just
Speaker 1: it wasn't It wasn't nice, but it was a cool experience,
Speaker 1: I guess as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the mosquitos really did it for us. We
Speaker 2: got eaten alive and we Yeah, it was a little brutal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the mosquitoes are not fun. But Florence is a
Speaker 1: cool city. We were just like, weirdly so jet lagged
Speaker 1: this entire trip. I think I don't even know.
Speaker 2: If I could call it jetlag. We were just like
Speaker 2: so lethargic and just not motivated to do anything.
Speaker 1: That sounds like jet lag to me.
Speaker 2: No, but it wasn't. I've had jet lag before. I
Speaker 2: didn't feel like jet lag. We were just like not motivated.
Speaker 2: I think that's the thing. Yeah, I don't know. We
Speaker 2: were both in this weird place in Florence, so we'd
Speaker 2: go out a little bit here and there. We went
Speaker 2: to the town. We went to the wine window, which
Speaker 2: it's cool, but then you're like, oh, I just got
Speaker 2: a glass of wine.
Speaker 1: Which I could do anywhere else, which I could just.
Speaker 2: Go inside and make their jobs easier.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But I did read up on the wine windows, and
Speaker 2: they date back to the sixteen hundreds, which is crazy,
Speaker 2: and they only recently opened them back up, so that
Speaker 2: little factoid was I thought was cool, fun factoid.
Speaker 1: We also took the car up to the lining tower
Speaker 1: of Pizza Piza, which was cool.
Speaker 2: Could have gone without going there.
Speaker 1: It was a long drive. It was maybe what an
Speaker 1: hour and a half.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Also it's hard. I think maybe this is part
Speaker 2: of our lack of motivation. The weather kind of sucked,
Speaker 2: like it was so gloomy, it was cold. There was
Speaker 2: one day that where it was nice and sunny, yeah,
Speaker 2: but in Pisa it was pretty cold and chilly and gloomy,
Speaker 2: and it just like it's cool to see. Then you
Speaker 2: see it and it's like, okay, now we go home.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. There wasn't really enough up there for us
Speaker 1: to like stay into, especially when you have another hour
Speaker 1: and a half drive ahead of you.
Speaker 2: But the person we rented the car from, we rented
Speaker 2: from sixth and she wrote out a bunch of places.
Speaker 2: I don't think she realized how she wort our trip
Speaker 2: was because every place she put was like an hour
Speaker 2: and a half away, all in different directions. But there
Speaker 2: were really really cool spots like this cool farm an
Speaker 2: hour and a half away, so we just didn't have
Speaker 2: enough time to go see the cool spots.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it was still a good trip. Italy is great.
Speaker 1: We'll probably be back at some point in our lives.
Speaker 1: Like we said, Como, Dolomites, and Tuscany are probably my
Speaker 1: top three favorites. But I would happily returned to basically
Speaker 1: anywhere in that country if you ask me. In most cases,
Speaker 1: it's hard because, like I've getten to the point where
Speaker 1: I just don't want to leave our dog behind. I
Speaker 1: like our house in Colorado, I don't want to leave that.
Speaker 1: But Italy is great. It's you get the modern comforts
Speaker 1: that you're used to get, cool, great food that you
Speaker 1: can eat a bunch of because it's not really quite
Speaker 1: as processed as it would you be in America. You
Speaker 1: get delicious wine, and you get a lot of history,
Speaker 1: and it's just a great, great country, great country. But
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it. For this week's episode, have been there,
Speaker 1: Dean that thank you guys so much for coming to
Speaker 1: Italy with us. I really appreciate it. I hope you
Speaker 1: tune in next week, where maybe we suck just a
Speaker 1: little little bit a little bit less